First home buyers active in WA and QLD

First home buyers are more attracted to mining boom states Western Australia and Queensland, according to the latest research from RP Data.

First home buyer activity has been rising, with ABS data showing a 14.3 per cent rise in the number of first home buyer loans over the September quarter of 2012, compared with the same time last year.

According to RP Data's blog, the number of housing finance commitments for first time buyers has been influenced by the specific concessions and stimulus available at the state level.

"The stamp duty concession that was available in New South Wales up to 31 December 2011 resulted in a surge of first time buyer activity leading up to the cut-off date," the blog states. "Similarly, in Victoria, the expiry of the state level First Home Buyers Bonus on July 1 saw a similar surge in activity leading up to the expiry of the stimulus."

On a proportional basis, first home buyers are most active in Western Australia and Queensland. "It seems that housing prices have little to do with attracting first home buyers to a market, with the most affordable states for housing, Tasmania and South Australia, attracting the lowest proportion of first time buyers," said RP Data.

"Common sense would dictate that employment opportunities would be a factor in attracting first home buyers, and that case can absolutely be argued in Western Australia, where there were over 68,000 new jobs created over the past year. That isn’t the case in Queensland, which has shown a fall of nearly 43,000 jobs over the past year."

First home buyers now comprise 19.3 per cent of all owner occupier housing finance commitments, which is slightly higher than the decade average of 18.5 per cent.